But you're not planning on addressing the other instances Who? talks about. I see.

Everyone has a few screwed up things happen to them at some point in their life. BFD. Like I said, the prelaw thing likely had nothing to do with racism and the paralegal thing probably didn't either. So 2, count 'em, 2 screwed things. I can see why that would greatly affect this poor, tortured soul...

But, that's the sort of thought process I can see at work in most Harvard bound/attending folks on here. "Someone was mean to me when I was 10 and it was such an injustice that forever tainted my life!". Lollercoaster.

Regardless, this person was able, off the top of his/her head, to come up with somewhere between two and four easily-digestible soundbites of racism, directed at him/her, in his/her own life.

Can you do that? Come up with two to four digestible soundbites, suitable for this kind of post (i.e. concise one-liners), where someone treated you badly because of who you are, how you were born, or the color of your skin? In a way that goes to history, prejudice, power, and hate?

This is completely different than general screwed up things happening to people. I assure you, this person has certainly experienced screwed-up things in his/her life that were individual in nature--e.g. a friend dropping him/her, a teacher being a male private part, whatever, the usual *&^% that does happen to everyone.

But that's not what's at issue here, nor is that what s/he brought up. What's at issue are the OTHER kinds of screwed up *&^%--the kind of screwed up *&^% that does not (by and large) happen to me, or to you, where someone treats us badly because of who we are, the way we were born, the color of our skin, in a way that goes to history, prejudice, power, and hate.

A friend dropping you is not an injustice. It's a misfortune. Experiencing racism, directed at you, on the contrary IS an injustice. Someone calling you a shithead is someone being mean to you, and not an injustice. Someone calling you a f-ing [epithet-of-choice] is racism, and it is an injustice. It affects you differently.

Off the top of my head, I don't remember all of the myriad times in my life when I have been called a female dog (or its other charming variations)*. But I DO remember, absolutely clearly, when, on my way to synagogue, a car full of young men screamed out at us, "f-ing kikes!" One was individual--meanness, not injustice. The other was group-based, directed at me not because of my individual personality but because of how they perceived a group I belonged to. And it went to history, prejudice, power, and hate. And it was an injustice, and it did affect me, and I do remember it. I am blessed (in an atheistic sense) in many other ways, so my personhood hasn't suffered the way racism and prejudice affect other groups of people who are more put-upon. But it's an injustice. You shouldn't trivialize it. It does affect people. Just because you've been lucky/blessed enough to have avoided it doesn't mean you get to treat it like it doesn't exist.

*Although, for the record, some of the more misogynistic ones, I do remember.

Can you do that? Come up with two to four digestible soundbites, suitable for this kind of post (i.e. concise one-liners), where someone treated you badly because of who you are, how you were born, or the color of your skin? In a way that goes to history, prejudice, power, and hate?

Coming from mister "I was raised a poor white boy in a black neighborhood, where's my AA" this is going to be good.

I wasn't talking to you, primarily, but rather to Ninja, who had found what to pick at here and there whilst ignoring the substance (and the meaning) of the post, and seemed to be desperately trying to navigate the thread away from the awkwardness of being confronted with actual contemporary racism directed at a law-school-applicant peer. I'm sorry, did you want to pick a fight with me?

I challenge all urm's to leave their race/ethnicity blank. This way we will finally have a cycle where only the deserving get in. As for the argument that urm status has put you at a disadvantage I point out that your aren't attending poorly funded city schools, you are attending colleges, which for the most part have amazing resources and funding. The only urm's that should mark their status are those who have actually been slaves. It is time that everyone should be judged on their merits and not on a rascist policy like AA. Although I feel my challenge is just I am sure it will not be accepted, to many people are ok with acception handouts.